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Lara slams India

In a game neither side seemed particularly interested in (In fact, umpire Rudi Koertzen said, before play actually began after yet another rain delay, that both captains had said they would prefer not to play, and risk injury to players on a slushy outfield), Brian Lara made the vital difference.

The West Indies, batting first on winning the toss (we don't want to give the Indian spinners last use of this track, Lara explained), lost Ridley Jacobs off the first ball of the match, and kept losing wickets at regular intervals thereafter in the face of good seam bowling by Mohanty and Laxmi Ratan Shukla, followed by controlled spin from Nikhil Chopra and Sunil Joshi.

And then Lara, who had dropped down to number seven to let his colleagues get a hit, came out and blasted an exuberant 60 off just 43 deliveries, with five of the cleanest hit sixes you ever want to see, and virtually sealed the game for his side. Ricardo Powell, the most impressive of the youngsters on view in this Windies outfit, came up with another display of clinical hitting. Not as devastating against spin as against pace, Powell still went over a run a ball and showed he had a cool thinking head in the way he rotated strike when he found his big hits not connecting.

Windies, who were 94/5 in 20 overs -- very slow progress given this was a 30-over game thanks to waterlogging on the field -- powered to 196/7, adding 102 in the last ten thanks mainly to the sheer brilliance of the Windies skipper.

Interestingly, India -- with a largely experimental lineup led by Saurav Ganguly (Sachin Tendulkar decided not to risk his back in what was largely a no-consequence game, given that both sides are already in the final) -- was doing as good or better than the Windies, having got to 98/4 at the 20 over mark. But without Jadeja in the side, India didn't have the kind of power-play they needed in the slog, and went down tamely to defeat.

We'll skip the usual detailed report on this one, given the circumstances, and focus on a few interesting points that emerged. The first, of course, is merely a continuation from yesterday's game -- namely, the striking ability of Mohanty, who took out Ridley Jacobs first ball as the keeper-batsman tried to swing over long on and failed to get hold of it, thanks to late away movement in the air. The wicket that really impressed, though, was that of Chanderpaul, who launched a calculated attack on India's lead bowler of the day. A straight four, a straight six, then a six over long on, and the question was whether Mohanty's nerve would break. On the evidence, the lad appears to have a good head on his shoulders -- he promptly went round the wicket, cut down the angle for the left-hander on the stroke, and Chanderpaul, trying for an encore over long on, found himself cramped and only managed a skier. That was good thinking bowling, and therefore noteworthy.

Laxmi Ratan Shukla finally got to do more than bring out the drinks and perform prodigies in the field as a substitute -- and impressed as a cool young man. Using the new ball alongside Mohanty (Venkatesh Prasad was among several Indian players who sat this game out), Shukla bowled well enough to indicate that with proper grooming, he could slip into the all-rounder slot at some time in the future. He is athletic, has a nice easy run up and good gather in the delivery stride, a whippy action that gives you good nip in the air and off the track, and seams the ball around, mainly into the right hander with the odd one leaving the bat. Barring one instance, I didn't see sign of swing, though, and given that the conditions favoured swing bowling, it would be a fair assessment to say that seam, not swing, seems to be his forte. Interestingly, though a series of West Indian big-hitters went out there and looked to take on the bowling, the youngster stayed collected throughout, showing no sign of losing his length, line, direction or, indeed, his head.

Chopra and Joshi, bowling in tandem, were also impressive. Both bowled two overs apiece at the height of the Lara-Powell onslaught, and still managed to finish their 6-over quotas without going at very decent economy rates, Chopra in the process grabbing two wickets as well.

One other interesting aspect was Ganguly's captaincy. As with Jadeja in Sharjah, it needs remembering that Ganguly here was under no pressure. He knew he was a stand-in, that he could lose without landing himself in for blame, and thus could be a lot more relaxed than if the job was his for keeps. Yet, his style of captaincy looks interesting -- for instance, when the seamers were operating, he kept two slips almost throughout, which was a very attacking move given that there were only 30 overs to go and run-saving would seem to have been the aim. Further, as soon as a wicket fell, he tended to put pressure on the newcomer -- thus, when Adams walked in for the second ball of the day, there was immediately a short square leg and a short cover in place, besides the two slips. Another interesting aspect of his captaincy was the fact that he kept switching his bowlers around, using all of them in short bursts, never letting any batsman settle against any one bowler -- a factor, definitely, in the Windies' slow scoring over the first 20 overs.

Toronto, where Ganguly has been asked to lead the side, will give us a better indication of his leadership skills, since there he will have the entire onus on himself rather than appearing as a fill-in -- but these first signs here were definitely interesting enough.

In the Indian chase, the only points worthy of notice were the performances of Dravid and Ganguly. Ramesh could consider himself a touch unlucky -- his cover drive was well selected and played, but Perry at a very short cover produced an excellent reflexive catch on the second attempt to send him back into the hut.

In Ganguly's innings, the point worth noting was that he seemed a shade below his best when faced with top pace -- and both Mervyn Dillon and Reon King bowled really fast in their first spells. When the bowling is quick and of three quarter length, Ganguly finds himself pinned to the crease, and inhibited in his strokeplay. This factor, taken into account, could well mean that dropping him to number four is a good move -- in this same innings, once the shine was off, the southpaw looked a much better player altogether, moving his feet with precision, giving even the quick bowlers the well timed charge and batting with much more freedom than in the early part of his innings. Too many bowlers have worked out that Ganguly is lethal outside off, so chances are he won't get too many deliveries in that region early on in his innings. Thus, it seems to make sense to bat him down, where he seems confident enough to even make room to leg to hit the quicks through the off or go down the wicket to them. And against spin, he remains our cleanest hitter, which is another plus in favour of the move.

Dravid, finally, went back to basics and settled down to the anchoring role he played to perfection in England during the World Cup, and immediately looked a much better batsman than the one we've been watching in Lanka and in yesterday's game against Zimbabwe. Here he looked assured, middled pretty much everything, and the onside play in particular showed touches of his best form.

And then there is Laxmi Ratan Shukla -- who, in a brief innings, showed that his heart is in the right place. With the bat, he gets behind the line to the quicks, he hits clean through the line, and he looks for the single as and when he either mishits, or the ball is not in the slot. His innings here was too brief to make a definite call one way or the other, but the lad does show promise -- and when you couple this with his batting and fielding, you find yourself hoping the board and the selectors don't play ducks and drakes with his career.

Today was by way of being a non-serious dress rehersal -- but it gave enough indications that the match-up between the two sides, on Tuesday, for the final, could be a corker. Weather permitting, of course -- though for some time now, the Indian team has looked like it was researching the sequel of that classic travel book, Chasing the Monsoon.

One off tangent point in passing: from behind the scenes, the word is that both Sachin Tendulkar and Brijesh Patel (who was manager of the team during the World Cup) have strongly suggested to the board that they bring Andrew Kokinos as physio, for another term. That India needs a physio is self-evident -- that Patel and Tendulkar have both pitched strongly for Kokinos is significant. Word is that Tendulkar and Patel both told the board that the young Aussie made a great difference to the general fitness standards during his first term, and that the team would be greatly served by having him on board as a permanent presence.

The board is expected to decide on the physio's appointment on September 23, in course of the annual general body meeting. It will be interesting to see how the board goes on this one.

In passing, does anyone see any significance in the fact that it was Patel who partnered Tendulkar in calling for Kokinos's comeback? This team does have a coach -- Anshuman Gaekwad, to give him a name -- but other than "putting defeats behind us" and saying that the rules for the World Cup were a bit confusing (Robin Singh in an interview in fact said that the team coach was unable to give any kind of helpful clarifications with respect to rules), one begins to wonder what his contribution is.

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